Stability of Inference Generation in Older Adults: The Pictorial Advantage and Resilience to Cognitive Decline

Narrative comprehension, which depends on a range of cognitive abilities, is key to being part of society. Despite extensive research on how aging impacts cognition, the effects of aging on narrative comprehension remain not fully understood. With depression and chronic pain becoming more prevalent in older populations, it's essential to identify factors influencing narrative comprehension in aging societies. This preregistered study investigates the impact of age, education, and presentation format (i.e., the narration’s codality – pictures vs. texts) on narrative comprehension in older individuals (N = 143, 62 - 86 years) using a bridging inference generation test. Participants were presented with pictorial and textual stories consisting of three panels, with the second panel replaced with a blank panel. Their task was to comprehend the stories and to identify (in)correct inferences for the missing event. Results indicate that despite age-related declines in memory and cognitive skills, narrative comprehension is independent of age and education. Further, pictorial stories yielded better comprehension than textual stories, independent of age and education. Physical and mental activity along with stable social contacts were tested as preventive factors. Depression, anxiety, chronic pain, poor sleep, and stress were tested as risk factors. We found more evidence supporting the stability of narrative comprehension, as the studied preventive and risk factors had no impact on it. Exploratory, we discovered that narrative comprehension relates to memory performance but not to other tested cognitive skills. We discuss these findings in light of current findings and theories in the field of event cognition.